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There are 18 things you need to start a new month or quarter in order to be your most productive self! #goalgetter
CLICK HERE TO PRINT OUT YOUR FREE MONTHLY CALENDAR
Have you ever stopped in the middle of a day and realized you are halfway through the month and you have no idea what you have even accomplished so far? Or maybe it’s the middle of a quarter and you are so lost in the hustle and bustle of every day “maintaining” that you ask yourself “where am I even going with all this hard work? What is the point of getting up and going every day?”
We all need a GAME PLAN for each new month and new quarter.
You know you have goals of where you want to be 1-5-10 years from now. You know you need to work towards those goals or the only thing you will ever get done is the laundry and dishes, only to do them all over again.
So let’s sit down and talk about your action plan to set your month of up for success and productivity in which you can carry over into the quarter you are currently in.
Give yourself something to feel accomplished about and pat yourself on the back with a big fat satisfying CHECK MARK on a step towards your personal/business goals.
Get started with these 18 things to do at the beginning of a new month or quarter. (If you do a whole quarter, you only have to do this list ONCE every 90 days).
I’m not going to dive into business-related plans for goal setting. I will only touch on it because it does go hand in hand with your personal life in such a way of planning around your work life.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. That just means if you purchase an item through one of my links I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
First Things First
Before you tackle your new month that lies ahead of you, waiting for you to dive in, you need to PREPLAN a day to PLAN your month. So get your calendar out and look at your schedule.
Before the end of the current month, pick a day where there isn’t much going on and block out 2-3 hours for yourself to plan your next, new month.
You are going to need some time, some quiet to think and your supplies (calendars, computer, pens, pencils sticky notes, etc. whatever you like to plan with).
If you are an avid planner nerd like me you have #alltheplannerthings, but I have found that too many planner things can be too confusing and overwhelming.
Just pick your top favorite items that you want to use for that month and you can switch it around for the next month if you need a new planning tool to change things up. I like to go back and forth between different planners to switch it up and see which one works best for me.
But either way, the PLANS themselves will still be the same.
So here we go, I’ve got your PLAN to plan for you.
The 18 Things To Do On Your Planning Day to Plan Your New Month/Quarter
Click HERE to Grab your Free Checklist Download to Plan Your Month
#1 PRIORITIES You are going to start with the things that you are going to back plan FROM. These are the hard priorities that come first, that you will schedule EVERYTHING ELSE around.
Start with a paper monthly calendar, and a note pad. You can print out THIS calendar that I created for you to start with.
Create a list of all of your appointments, doctor visits, events, birthdays, planned activities, kids school events, business events, business appointments and ANYTHING along the lines of set in stone TIMED AND DATED, that is pre-planned already on a calendar you have with someone/something else.
Pencil in all of these times and dates into your paper calendar. I like to use these large desktop calendars from Amazon too, so I can pull out 3 at a time to set up my quarter and plan ahead.
For example, since my son has to see his psychiatrist every 6 weeks, I call and get those scheduled for the quarter. If it’s time for Flu shots, I schedule those. If it’s a routine check-up for anyone in my house, I get those pre-scheduled at least SOMEWHERE in my quarter. If one of my kids has a birthday, I pencil in the day we will celebrate. Etc, etc. If I know I have an expo to go to for work, I pencil that in on the calendar. Get these priority items on the calendar FIRST.
#2 BUDGETS. Once you have your priorities down, its time to set up your budgets.
I’m not going to go into how to do this because this is a personal matter of how you like to do these and there are TONS of posts about setting up your budgets all over Pinterest.
Follow my board HERE on how to set up your budgets.
So set up your new monthly/quarterly budgets for both HOME AND WORK. I do mine on google docs as well as have a budget binder for both. I will do a post on these soon.
#3 GOALS. Now that you have your priorities penciled in, your new budgets set up, this is where to planning comes in. This is how you will make your time work for you, not against you.
Make your list of 3-5 goals you want to complete for both HOME and WORK. You can use THIS goal setting worksheet to list them out and make an action plan if you’d like.
Everyone sets up goals differently, so this is just an action task. No full detail on how to set up your goals. So write down 3-5 goals for both home and work, and then under each goal, write out 3-5 baby steps you need to take to reach those goals.
Go to your calendar and pencil in when you want those goals to be completed by.
Give yourself some buffer for when life happens.
Pencil in those steps you need to take to get to those goals. Pick a general week to work on them if you don’t know of an actual day you will be able to work on them.
#4 BOOKS. Pick your new books for the month.
Choose a novel and a self-development book.
Get them from the library, order new ones from Amazon, or borrow from a friend.
My book for the month is High Performance Habits by Brendan Burchard. This is one of the HOTTEST self-development books floating around out there right now. I HIGHLY recommend it. Don’t be left out of the loop! The Kindle edition is on sale for only 1.99 right now! I follow Reese Witherspoon’s book club for my fiction novel choices.
#5 CLEAN THE HOUSE. Schedule in a day to Deep Clean your house and work area.
Look at your calendar, pick a Sunday or a day off of work at the beginning of the month.
Either enlist your kids, hire some help or do it all yourself and get that SHIZ clean. Sweep, vacuum, mop, dust, Windex, scrub every part of your house. Rotate the laundry all day long. Get those kids to help fold and put away. Get the house and your work area set up for an organized and cleaned up month.
#6 CLEAN THE COFFEE POT. While you are cleaning, let’s get that coffee pot cleaned out.
Start the new month off with a clean coffee pot.
Scrub everything with baking soda and dawn and run it all through the dishwasher. Run the vinegar through the machine and decalcify that bad boy. Get er clean!
HERE is a tutorial on how to clean your coffee pot. Nothing tastes better than fresh coffee from a clean pot. You’ll thank yourself later when you are dragging one morning, it’s storming and cold out and you need a good cup of coffee.
#7 CLEAN OUT OUT YOUR BAGS. Grab that purse. Dump it out. Grab that work bag. Dump it out. Clean out and wash your workout bag too.
Throw away all the trash and crap and papers you don’t need. Organize the hell out of it and clean it up. See what you can take out and see what you need to add. Wipe those bad boys out and put it all back together.
Find yourself a SPOT for your purse and bags ONLY in your house. Keep them there when you don’t need them. Designate to the household, that’s your bag spot for YOUR bags.
#8 MAIL. Grab that pile of mail. Yep. It’s time. Go through it! Throw away the junk and trash.
Check the bills that need to be paid. Mark those dates on your calendar. Go file what needs to be filed.
NO MAIL in the mail pile at the beginning of the month.
NONE.
#9 EMAIL. Same thing. Go through all your inboxes and file or delete.
Respond to those you’ve been putting off.
Archive everything.
And INBOX ZERO that thing.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE TRELLO BOARD TO PLAN YOUR MONTH!
#10 PHOTOS. Grab your phone. Download the Google Photos app.
This is now your hub for all of your phone photos that you can access anywhere anytime stored safely away to always keep. Upload all of your phone photos to your Google Photos App. Once they are all uploaded, DELETE them from your phone.
You no longer need them. Now you can free up your space on your phone.
#11 AUTOMATE A MEAL PLAN. Go to Pinterest and find you a printable “staples” grocery list. HERE is one of my favorites.
Print it out, go to your pantry and check off everything that you HAVE in stock. Now you know what you need to supply your household stash with.
Grab your penciled in calendar. Take a look at how many days that month you will need to actually cook a meal for based on your schedule of where you and your family will be.
If you have 15 days you need to make a meal, make a list of 15 meals off the top of your head that you can have as a skeleton guide to go by.
Attach this list to your calendar. Add the ingredients and supplies you would potentially need IF you were going to actually cook all of those meals that month.
Chances are things will change, meals will change, life will happen and you won’t actually make all of those meals.
But on those crazy nights, you will have a cheat sheet of meals ready to go.
Make a trip to the grocery store and get those staples you are missing and the ingredients you would need if you were to make all of those meals that month.
This is my simple meal planning technique to start the month off because I am the ABSOLUTE worst at meal planning.
And as a mom of 4, I need to have some kind of guide to hold my hand through meals for the month. So now you have all the groceries you need and a meal plan for the new month.
BAM! Done. Next.
#12 QUICK DECLUTTER. Grab a cardboard box. Grab a kid, a husband or a friend. Whatever. Grab someone.
You HAVE to declutter and fill that box.
The key to keeping the house picked up over ALL else is to get rid of stuff. The only reason your house will ever be a mess is because you have too much stuff.
You and your buddy take 20 minutes. Go from room to room and put SOMETHING in the box you can donate, throw away, pass on, etc. In those 20 minutes, get the box filled to the top.
Don’t cheat and grab a tiny box. Make this worth your effort and give you some actual benefits of cleaning less for the month to come.
Take the box and DONT set it back down in your house. That’s pointless. Make a decision to either donate, throw away, or put it in your garage sale stack. But get it out of your house.
#13 CLEAN OUT YOUR CAR. Time to clean out your vehicle. Grab a cleaning caddy and a trash sack. if you have a good Shop-Vac grab that too set a timer for 30 minutes.
Grab a buddy and get busy cleaning out that vehicle. throw away all the trash. Windex the windows. Wipe down the inside grab that vacuum and vacuum out the seats and floorboards stop when the timer goes off and put everything away.
#14 MEDICATION. If you or anyone in your household takes medication, grab your bottles and see how much you have left.
If you need to get them filled or make an appointment to get them filled, then get that done.
Grab your medication filler and fill it up for a new week or new month. Make sure you have enough to get through the rest of the month.
#15 HABIT TRACKER. print out a habit tracker from Pinterest.
I like this free one. I like to cut them out and paste them into my planner.
Keeping habits is part of self-development and personal care.
Having a habit tracker helps me hold myself responsible for my self-development.
Fill out the Habit tracker of everything that you like to do and accomplish every day. Sometimes I will even print out a free mood tracker and track my mood for the month.
Keep this with your planner to look over every morning. Check off everything you got accomplished the day before here is a copy of mine to look at.
Here are some examples of what I like to track in my habit tracker:
No Spend
Exercise
Vitamins
Walk Dogs
Reach out to loved ones
Self Care
Read
4am Routine
#16 NON-NEGOTIABLES. Now it’s time to make a list of tasks you want to complete this month and this quarter.
The first thing you want to do is brainstorm all the things you want to do or wish you were doing more consistently. Staying laser-focused exercising spending more time with your kids planning a date night etcetera.
You also want to include your non-negotiables.
For example, if you no longer want to work nights or weekends, you will only work on 2 major projects at a time only. Or you refuse to not start something and not finish it. These are non-negotiables and a HUGE part of your planning.
Not to be confused with goals or priorities, these are personal activities for you to work towards in order to be productive and get towards those goals.
On the other side of that list make a list of things that you want to do less of. such as spend less time on social media, stop drinking so much, things like that.
Write down every single thing big or small even if it’s the play a video game once a week to decompress.
You can type these up on a doc so you can have them to look at every morning when you wake up. Remind yourself of your purpose for each day and how you want to improve so you can stay focused on yourself.
#17 WRITTEN DAILY ROUTINE. Make yourself a daily routine from morning afternoon and night.
Include all 24 hours and even schedule in sleep.
Use this routine for the month keep yourself on a block schedule so that you can follow the path to your goals.
Check out just how productive you can be with a fantastic morning routine to kick-start your day
#18 FINALIZE. Now it’s time to get finalized. Grab your main planner calendar.
Do you use Google calendar or fancy Erin Condren planner?
I actually use both and I love Erin Condren planners they are so beautiful and well-designed definitely check them out to get one and one of the many options they have available. here is my personal Erin Condren life planner that you can glance at to see just how I paper plan bye week stays in months. My Erin Condren has individual time slots to actually map out my schedule for the day, have a written form of my schedule, and where I can add my PERSONAL plan for the day. Such as when to make dinner, when I’m going to work on a project, if I need to run to the dollar store, I can pencil in my own personal timeline for the day that doesn’t go on everyone else’s main family schedule.
Go HERE to get your own Erin Condren Life Planner!
I also use Google Calendar and the Planyway power-up for Trello.
On the Google Calendar I schedule in every priority that is shared between my family this way I can set up notifications to send to my husband, grandparents, friends and other family to keep everyone on track and on schedule so we all know where we are going and what we are doing when and where.
I love Google Calendar to block out my days in a color-coded fashion and get those reminders pop up on my phone for days when it’s hectic and life has taken over.
Check out this example of my google calendar below to see how I color code my block schedule to alongside my Erin Condren life planner for my personal hourly to-dos.
YOU ARE DONE! The only thing you have left to do is EXECUTE!
Hang up that penciled in calendar like mine below for when you need to move things around (why I suggest penciling in your paper calendar).
You can see the bigger picture this way of what your next month and quarter will bring you.
MY SUPER DUPER SECRET SAUCE INGREDIENT: If you pick ONE day to do all of these things for the entire new Quarter, then you are completely set and ready to go for 90 days. So you only have to do this list 4 times a year.
How do you plan your month or quarter? Do any of these things on this list resonate with you for your AHA! Moment? Tell me how you plan YOUR month/quarter below. I’m always looking for fresh new ways to be as goal-oriented and productive as possible! #successforwin!
These are great ideas! I love the de clutter box idea!
Thank you! The de clutter box is actually my favorite part, you never realize just how much junk accumulates over time. The box gives you a good idea of that.
This makes me ridiculously happy. I love to plan, and this is such a great way to do it! I definitely signed up for my free Trello board, too!
Planner sister! So glad you grabbed the Trello board. Organization and lists make me happy! I can’t live with out my Trello.
I love the idea of breaking up your goal setting and planning into quarters.
Yes! Breaking it up gets a lot done at once, but not too much that it’s overwhelming.
Wow! I apparently need to do more cleaning, lol! That is a beautiful planner though!
Thank you! I am a planner addict and so picky about my planners. Especially if I am going to invest in one at all. The more cleaning the merrier!
Cleaning out my bag is a nightmare. I need to do this more often. I literally have everything in there but the kitchen sink! Literally.
Yes! My bags get soooo bad. If I don’t do them I get so frustrated when i have to go through them and dig out what i need, especially in public. Doing it once a month, i even write it on my calendar, CLEAN OUT BAGSSSS, so i block off 10 minutes and just dump them and race against the timer to finish it.
You have some great tips for planning out the month and the free checklist is a motivator for me. Thanks for sharing! ?
Thank you! I hope the checklist helps for sure! Thanks for stopping by.
You have some great tips for planning out the month and the free checklist is a motivator for me. Thanks for sharing! ?
Wow!!!! So organized!!! I need to get back at it. I feel all over the place lately.
I hate that feeling of being all over the place. I get that way so much so it feels good that i can stop and go back to my calendars and see where the heck I’m at.
You are my sister from another mister! I love your color coordinated family calendar. It looks just like mine.
Yes COLOR CODE #allthethings!
I’m definitely doing these for November! It feels like such a fresh start. I love the idea of cleaning out your bag. I don’t even know the last time I did that.
Go for it! I’d love to hear how it goes. I know my bags get so bad if i don’t and then i get annoyed that i can’t find anything in my bags. Enjoy getting organized!
I really need to get my act together, and this sounds like a great way to start off a new week, month, year! I can definitely use these tips in getting organized.
Yes! Go for it girl. You will feel so organized and have your aha moment!
This is EXACTLY what I need to help me get myself organized. Also? I had NO idea you could do that with Google Calendar! I need to add my kids in!
Yes! There are so many tutorials on how to color code and set up your google calendar. Definitely look into that and you will love it!
I have an SUPER cool trick I am going to be sharing in a youtube video soon with google calendar that I just figured out. You will LOVE it!
This is a lot of planning, but as an entrepreneur I understand the importance of organization! I’m very impressed!
It is a lot of planning! I feel like i have to plan for every aspect of my life or I get so lost!
I needed to read this. As the mama of two small children, my minivan could use some serious cleaning. Thanks for writing out specific things that will help me feel more on top of things.
Thank you for sharing. It is very helpful. I sick at planning.
Okay I really need to practice these!
I love this and will be using it often!
Must do this great list for the quarter, monthly would be pushing it, thank you
This is such a great resource to have! I am taking notes as we speak!
Be sure to print out the list of everything already typed up for you!
Definitely lots of things I should do on that list ? But decluttering have I started to get better on after we have to downsize from house to apartment after moving to Silicon Valley.
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Hi! Sure, I use lyricalhost. They are amazing and have a great price. Send me an email and I can help you get started with them.